On SciFi (UK) this weekend: Sword of Xanten aka Dark Kingdom: The Dragon King

by Diane Duane

For those of you on the European side of the water who haven’t seen it as yet: SciFi UK  is showing Sword of Xanten (this being the goofy name that Channel 4 in the UK, like a terminally confused fairy godmother, wished on The Ring / Die Nibelungen / Dark Kingdom: The Dragon King) this Sunday and Monday.

Kristanna Loken is absolutely worth watching in this as Queen Brunnhild. And there is, of course, the story: a somewhat-reworked but not too damaged version of the great German epic poem the Nibelungenlied.  (The trouble with the Ring mythos is picking and choosing which bits you’re going to keep and which you’re not. Our producers chose to avoid the Wagnerian additions to the story, hewing closer to the storyline as set out in the poem., though we also drew on the Eddaic sources for some pieces of business.) 

We had fun writing this. If you have time, pop a beverage and sit back and watch Brunnhild whale on Siegfried with that spear. (And chuck poor King Gunter out of bed before the real trouble starts.) Watch the dragon engage in mortal battle with Bennu Fürmann’s wig. (Those wigs never worked on the poor man.)  And watch South Africa look really amazingly like the Rhine valley…

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